Send your hologram to that meeting in New York, rather than going yourself. Experience everything Australia has to offer from the comfort of your living room. Instantly 3D-print that gadget you saw on television and get it delivered by drone messenger.
The age of gigabit connectivity is dawning and these are just a few of the predictions in a report called ‘Killer Apps in the Gigabit Age’, which tries to envisage how the next generation of Internet connections will change our lives.
The report works on the premise that, just as dial-up Internet access brought email into the mainstream and broadband spurred video streaming and social networking; gigabit-speed Internet will introduce us to a new set of technologies that will allow for more meaningful brand experiences.
Gigabit Internet Marketing
Enhanced telepresence and detailed virtual worlds were two of the main themes that emerged when the Pew Research Center asked more than 1,400 Internet experts about the possible benefits of a widely available gigabit Internet. While some companies like Coca-Cola have already dabbled with both tactics, the technology is still in its infancy. But once hyper-fast Internet becomes wide-spread, the marketing sector will be in a strong position to provide hyper personalized interactions with consumers.
‘Holodecks’, from the old Star Trek series may become a reality with gigabit Internet connections, and shopping for games, films, cars and vacations will all become immersive 3D experiences, thanks to new technologies, such as 3D holograms, wearables and virtual reality environments.
Health Care Sector
Eighty-six percent of the people responding to the Pew questionnaire said they believed that bandwidth increases over the next 10 years will lead to major new apps - and one sector that will benefit greatly from this is the health sector.
The big story here is continuous health monitoring. Hyper-fast gigabit speeds will allow the market for wearable health monitors and chronic disease management apps to take off. We will be able to purchase health-monitoring systems as easily as we purchase home-security systems, and the faster speeds could enable a wealth of health-monitoring devices that can warn people when they're tipping over into unhealthy behaviors.
This will benefit chronically ill or elderly patients, who will be released from hospital with a kit of sensors that can be used at home, and the results fed back to the hospital digitally – negating the need for lengthy hospital stays.
We are also likely to see a rise in the practice of telemedicine, to ease the pressure on overworked doctors and the NHS. Private clinics will start offering remote assessment, treatment, and even basic surgical procedures to patients, as the practice of robotic and remote surgery become more widely used.
